Ingot-pouring mechanism



S. B. SHELDON.

mam POURING MECHANISM.

APPLlCATlON FILED JAN. I8, 1917- 1,340,422. v Patented May 18, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

S. B. SHELDON.

INGOT POURING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 18. 1917.

1,340,422. Patented y 18, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

SAMUEL BERTRAM SHELDON, OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA.

INGOT-POUBING MECHANISM.

Application filed January 18, 1917.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL B. SHELDON, a citizen of the United States, residing in Duluth, county of St. Louis, and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ingot Pouring Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the steel making art and particularly to a "novel means for pouring molten metal into ingotmolds.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide a pouring trough adapted to be easily movable along the pouring platform and to overlie the tops of at least two ingot molds so that when the ladle carrying the molten metal from the furnace is discharged into the trough of my invention, two or more molds may be simultaneously filled.

It is well known in theart that speed is essential in pouring molten metal from the ladle into the ingot molds in order to pre vent cooling thereof as such cooling chills the metal toward the end of the pouring whereby all of the contents of the ladle are not discharged. This results in waste as the chilled metal forms a skull which remains in the ladle andhas to be re-melted for further use.

To overcome the objections-T have provided a trough sufficiently long to extend over the tops of two ingot molds as the molds are mounted on ingot cars. For moving the trough along with the ladle I prefer to mount it on the end of a shaft transversely arranged on a car or truck which is movable along the pouringplatform. Proper means are attached to the shaft so that longitudinal and rotative movement is possible, the longitudinal movement of course being to register the openings in the bottom of.the trough with the openings in the top of the mol s, rotative movement being to enable the operator to control the flow of the metal to each ingot mold; As it is necessary to have an operator with the car or truck I provide a shield to protect the'foperator from the excessive heat of the flowing metal. This also acts as a protection against flying sparks or metal. This shield is mounted on the outward side of the truck and is provided with proper apertures through which the shaft projects. For holding the shaft on the car I provide proper rollers, the one at the outer edge being underneath the shaft and the one at the inner edge being above Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 18, 1920.

Serial No. 143,023.

the shaft, this latter arranged to prevent tilting of the shaft and to serve as a restraining bearing. The truck is so constructed as to be pushed along the platform by the operator.

For pouring more than two molds, I prefer to employ three shafts, carrying three troughs on the car or truck one shaft being mounted above the others, the trough carried by the upper shaft discharging into each of the troughs carried by the lower shafts and each of these lower troughs discharging into two molds. With such an arrangement it is possible to simultaneously pour four ingot molds, which arrangement will be apparent to be of great advantage to those familiar with the art. I

To enable those skilled in the art to more fully understand my invention attention is directed to the drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a side elevation of the preferred embodiment of mechanism of my invention arranged for two molds.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the arrange ment' for pouring four molds.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the same.

In the drawings the pouring platform is indicated at 10 the same being elevated above the ground 11. On the ground 11 are mounted rails 12 on which ingot mold cars with molten metal from the furnace and is then carried by the crane over the ingot molds 14 mounted on the cars 13. Positioned in the lower portion of the ladle is an opening 17 controlled on the inside of the ladle by a stopper 18 which stopper is actuated by the operator on the platform 10.

The mechanism embodyin my invention comprises a frame 19 of engthwise and crosswise members mounted on wheels 20 for running on track 21 mounted on the pouring platform 10. A shaft 22 is mounted transversely of the frame 19 supported by an outward roller '23 and restrained at its rear by roller 24.

The shaft is of such length as to extend the shaft 22 extends. Carried by the outer end of shaft 22 is a trough'27 havin two apertures 27* arranged to register wit the openings in two molds. The shaft 22 termi- Znates in an enlarged and squared portion tudinal and crosswise members 36.

28 for engagement with a socket 29 on the back of the trough 27, to provide for disengagement of trough and shaft whenever desired.

Connected to the shaft 22 are levers 30 and 31, lever 30 being connected to the shaft so as to rotate it, and lever 31 connected to move the shaft longitudinally. In order to provide for a positive connection between the lever 31 and the shaft and at the same time permit of angular rotation of the shaft under the influence of the lever 30, the lower end of the lever 31 is bifurcated, the two members 32 having registering slots for the accommodation of pins 33 carried by the shaft. Inasmuch as the lower or bifurcated end of the lever 31 is pivoted at 32 to the bracket 34 an oscillation of the lever will cause a longitudinal movement of the shaft and a movement of the pins 33 relative to the slots in which they operate; further that when the lever has been moved to such an extent as to bring the pins to eitherextremity of the slots then the shaft, and consequently the trough, is locked against rotation. This is an important advantage as it is diflicult to balance the trough and unintentional swinging thereof might cause serious injury to a workman underneath the same; or if the trough should assume other than a horizontal position during the shifting of the mold cars, one ormore molds mi ht be toppled over.

eferring to Figs. 4 and 5, the construction there is similar to that described in Figs. 1 and 2. However, Figs. 4 and 5 show the employment of three shafts carrying three troughs arranged in a certain manner. 19 indicates the frame of a car or truck mounted on wheels 20 and provided with the usual longitudinal and crosswise members. This truck runs on rails 21 mounted on the pouring platform 10.

The car is provided with upstanding frame members 35 carrying upper longi- Mounted on the upper frame members 36 is a shaft 37 extending transversely of the car and adapted to extend beyond the sides thereof. This shaft is supported by an outward bearmg 38 and an inward bearing 39. I prefer to position this substantially in the middle portion of the car for purposes explained later. On the frame members 19 are mounted shafts 40 and 41 in substantially a horizontal-plane with respect to shaft 37; these are placed toward the ends of the car or truck. Shafts 37, 40 and 41 are provided at their outer ends with the square end members 42 which engage with sockets 43 on the rear sides of troughs 44, 45 and 46. The shafts 37, 40 and 41 are so arranged as to cause the trough 44 carried by shaft 37 to be so positioned as to discharge into troughs 45 and 46. A ladle 15 having a pouring aperture 17 and a stopper 18 is suspended above the trough 44 so that its contents may be discharged therein.

Carried on rails 12 mounted on the ground 11 are the ingot mold cars 13 carrying ingot molds 14, the cars being connected together in the usual manner. The distancebetween the shafts 40 and 41 is such as to bring the troughs 45 and 46 connected to the shafts over the tops of the ingot molds 14 carried on the cars 13. Each of the molds 45 and-46 is provided with apertures or openings each of which is registered with the opening of the top of the ingot mold directly therebeneath. Also the bottom of trough 44 is provided with apertures which discharge into troughs 45 and 46. Shafts 37, 40 and 41 are provided with levers 47 and 48 for imparting longitudinal and rotative movement to the shafts as described above.

It will be seen that I have provided a means of pouring steel .or other molten metal into more than one mold with one opening of the ladle stopper. In the first form shown I have disclosed means for filling two molds, in the second form, means for filling four molds. It is, of course, understood that I do not limit my invention to the filling of only two or only four .molds with one opening of the ladle stopper as of course where smaller ingot molds are used it may be desired to have an intermediate trough having three openings in its bottom. Also it may be desired to employ more than three shafts as shown in Figs. 4 and 5 to fill more than four molds with one opening of the ladle stopper, this arrangement being limited only by the cooling of the steel as it passes into the opening of the molds through the intermediate troughs.

Having fully described my invention what I desire to cover by Letters Patent is: 1. In a device of the class described, the combination of a movable carriage, a trough carried thereby and adapted to be positioned above a plurality of movable molds, said trough being provided with a plurality of above a plurality of molds, said trough being provided with a plurality of discharge outlets in its bottom wall said outlets being so positioned as to register with the pouring openings of said molds, and means on said carriage for moving said trough to position the same relative to the molds and for controlling the amount of metal discharged through each of its outlets, substantially as described.

3. In a device of the class described, the combination of a movable carriage, a series of troughs carried thereby mounted in staggered relation and adapted to be positioned above a plurality of molds, one of said troughs being positioned above the others, all of said troughs being provided with a plurality of "discharge, outlets, the outlets in the lower troughs being so positioned as to register with the pouring openings of said molds, the outlets of the upper trough being positionedas to discharge into each of the lower troughs and means for moving said troughs to position the same relative to the molds and to one another for controlling the amount of metal discharged throug every one of said outlets, substantially as described.

4. In a device of the class described, the combination of a carriage mounted for movement alongside of a line of molds,- a tro'ughlike container mounted on the carriage and having a plurality of outlets, means for effecting a bodily movement of the container transversely of the line of molds and means for effecting a rotative movement of the container on a horizontal axis whereby tocontrol the extent of flow through each of said outlets, substantially as described.

5. In a device of the class described, the

combination of a horizontally. movable car-- .bination with a bottom-pour casting ladle,

of a car or carriage mounted for longitudinal travel adjacent to the casting stat1on, an overhanging crane arm mounted on the car or carriage, and metal distributing troughs o'r runners carried by said crane arm and arranged to receive the discharge from said ladle, said crane arm having means for effecting a tilting movement of-the troughs or runners, substantially as described.

Signed at Duluth, in the county of St. Louis and State of Minnesota, this 10th day of January, 1917.

SAMUEL BERTRAM SHELDON.

Witnesses:

H. H. LUMLEY, SARA O. Hons'r. 

